


The Good Daughter

by Elizabeth Culmer (edenfalling)



Series: The Way of the Apartment Manager [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Backstory, Family, Fifteen Minute Fic, Gen, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Original Character(s), Pre-Canon, Side Story, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-03
Updated: 2010-02-03
Packaged: 2018-02-23 15:10:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2552105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edenfalling/pseuds/Elizabeth%20Culmer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One year before she graduates from the academy, Yukiko talks to her mother -- ostensibly about fire safety codes, but mostly about trust.  (Part of the "Apartment Manager" AU.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Good Daughter

**Author's Note:**

> I am attempting to feel my way back into writing _Naruto_ fanfiction, in preparation for (hopefully) getting back to work on "The Guardian in Spite of Herself." In that spirit, here is an absurdly self-indulgent story about Ayakawa Yukiko's childhood, inspired by the 2/3/10 [15_minute_fic](http://15_minute_fic.livejournal.com) word #128.

"Our building's a deathtrap, you know," Yukiko pronounced as she stood beside her mother and chopped onions and shiitake mushrooms for her father's surprise birthday dinner.

Ayakawa Yukina looked down at her daughter, curious about her suddenly morbid turn of conversation. "How so? I know we're right against the village wall, but those defenses are very good. And Konoha has never been directly attacked in the wars. Slice the onions a little finer, darling; you know your father doesn't like them in large chunks."

Yukiko shook her head, setting her ponytail flying. "That's not what I meant. If I meant that, I'd say this location is dangerous -- which it is, sort of, but no more than anywhere else in a hidden village. What I meant is that if enemies get into the building, we don't have good escape routes. And if there's a fire or someone uses an earth-moving jutsu and the building falls down, we don't have any plans or ladders or anything."

Yukina set down her wooden spoon and turned the heat under the soup down to the lowest simmer possible. "It's true that we don't have fire escapes, but darling, what do you think the water tank is for? There's an emergency generator in the rooftop garden, and hoses coiled under the tank. We can fight any small fires until the military police and the fire squad arrive. As for enemies and earthquakes--" She sighed, remembering Aoi's stories of the battle that had devastated his farming village and sent him and his cousin to Konoha as refugees. "If enemy ninja are within the walls, nobody will still be inside civilian housing. We'll all be in caves and other shelters, under guard."

Yukiko frowned down at the mushrooms, her knife flashing with swift, reflexive skill as she chopped them up and swept them aside into a mixing bowl. "Maybe," she said. "But what if it's a sneak attack? What if they come under the wall and need hostages? I just--"

"You just what, darling?" Yukina asked, laying a hand lightly on her daughter's shoulder.

"What if something happens and I can't protect you?" Yukiko asked, stabbing her kitchen knife through the cutting board and into the counter. Yukina made a note to scold her for that later, but said nothing, waiting for the rest of the outburst. Sure enough, Yukiko continued: "I want to be a ninja and protect Konoha, but everybody else in the academy is so much better than me, and there's so many ways to kill people without even trying, really, and I don't want you and Dad to _die!_ Not like Grandma and Grandpa died on their trip, and like Dad's parents did so I never even got to meet them."

"Oh, Yukiko, baby. Come here," Yukina said, bringing her other arm forward to wrap around her daughter.

Yukiko made a stifled noise of protest. "I'm eleven, Mom -- I'm not a baby."

"You'll always be my baby," Yukina said firmly, "even when you're a hundred years old. Listen, Yukiko -- Aoi and I are so proud of you for wanting to protect us and all of Konoha and Fire Country. But you're only one person. Nobody, no matter how strong or skilled, can be everywhere and do everything alone. You're not the only ninja in Konoha. You have to trust that the Hokage and the Council, the Anbu and the police, and all the other ninja are here to help you."

She pulled her daughter closer, hugging her tight. "You're going to graduate next year. I know you will. And then you'll have partners; you'll have to trust them."

"I'll trust them with me," Yukiko mumbled. "I don't want to trust them with you."

"I'll be trusting your partners and jounin-sensei with _you_ ," Yukina pointed out. "Yukiko, nothing is going to happen to me or to your father. We have far too much to live for. But if it makes you feel better, you can look over the building from cellar to roof and tell us whatever you think might make it safer. I won't promise to follow all your plans, but I will promise to listen. We'll trust each other to be strong and stay safe. Okay?"

Slowly, Yukiko relaxed into her mother's embrace, tipping her head up and back to offer a watery smile. "Maybe." Yukina raised one eyebrow. "Okay, okay, I'll try not to worry. Even if you and Dad are getting old and stupid, and you couldn't win a fight if the enemy tripped and knocked himself out with his own kunai."

"I'm going to ignore that last sentence, since I know you can't possibly have said something that would force me to make you miss your father's birthday dinner," Yukina said, and hid a smile at her daughter's suddenly abashed expression. She gave Yukiko one last squeeze, then let her go with a gentle push back toward the counter. "Now pull that knife out, find the wood putty, and fix the cut you made."

"But Mom! I'm supposed to be helping you cook Dad's special dinner, not doing repairs. Can't it wait for tomorrow?"

Yukina picked up her spoon and gave the soup an absent stir. "Are you too proud to take orders from a civilian, darling?"

"No. But-- oh, you're so unfair! I don't know why I worry about you at all!" Yukiko stomped out of the kitchen with all the normal aggrieved self-righteousness of an eleven-year-old girl.

As the door slammed shut, Yukina laughed.

**Author's Note:**

> Some background: Ayakawa Yukina is Yukiko's mother; Aoi (short for Tachiaoi) is her father. Yukina owns and runs the apartment building as well as various other properties around Konoha, while Aoi is her handyman and househusband. Generally Aoi would be the one cooking -- he taught Yukiko to cook and do repairs, while Yukina taught Yukiko about accounting and contractors and stuff like that -- but Yukina and Yukiko are 'surprising' him with a special birthday dinner. Yukina is the head of the Ayakawa clan, since she is older than her brother Yutaro. Aoi was a war orphan from a Fire Country village that got destroyed in a battle; he moved to Konoha as a refugee and married into Yukina's clan.


End file.
